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Latin pharmacognostic name: Ophiopogonis Radix

Alternate English names: lilyturf [root]

Alternate Chinese names: 麦门冬 mài mén dōng

Kingdom: Plant

Origin in PRC Pharmacopoeia: Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker-Gawl. (PRC Pharmacopoeia)

Origin (other sources): Ophiopogon japonicus Ker-Gawl.*; Liriope kansuensis (Batal.) C.H. Wright.; Liriope minor (Maxim.) Mak.; Liriope platyphylla Want et Tang; Liriope spicata Lour.; Ophiopogon intermedius D. Don

Use: Medicinal

Category: Supplementing agents / Yīn-supplementing agents

Properties: Sweet, slightly bitter; slightly cold.

Channel entry: Stomach, lung, and heart channels.

Indications:

• Nourishes lung yīn and clears lung heat: Yīn vacuity and lung dryness with heat, manifesting as cough, scant phlegm, coughing of blood, sore throat, and loss of voice.
• Boosts the stomach and engenders liquid: Stomach yīn vacuity with heat, manifesting in dry tongue, thirst, stomach duct pain, hunger without desire to eat, vomiting and retching, and dry stool.
• Clears the heart and eliminates vexation: Heart yīn vacuity; evil heat entering provisioning in warm disease.

Dosage & Method: Oral: 6–12g in decoctions. Traditionally, the core (心 xīn, literally heart) is removed for clearing lung or stomach heat but is not removed when treating heart patterns.

Warnings: Contraindicated in spleen-stomach vacuity cold with reduced eating and sloppy stool, in wind-cold common cold, and in phlegm-rheum and damp turbidity.

Quality: The best quality tubers are fat, light in color, and semi-translucent. They are soft and supple, have a sticky texture in the mouth, and give off a pleasant scent.

Product Area: Zhèjiāng, Sìchuān, and less importantly Jiāngsū, Guìzhōu, Yúnnán, Guǎngxī, ānhuī, Húběi, Húnán.

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